Viewers Vote Which Story To Air

[Paper Trail]

All Eyes on KATV's Fisher (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/60000406/post/1360036936.html)

We have a fun story in Monday's issue on KATV Little Rock and its general assignment reporter Kristin Fisher, who has agreed to let webcams follow her (most) every move throughout sweeps. The idea is to give viewers a glimpse at how news stories come together, and give them a say in what makes it to air--each day, viewers vote on which of three stories Fisher should pursue.

KATV has a history of innovative/weird sweeps stunts, including the "e-partment" experiment that saw a reporter holed up in an apartment for a month, with no access to the world other than the Web.

And it's interesting that it's KATV that's doing the current campaign, as the station of course lost one of its own recently when anchor Anne Pressly was murdered (the culprit remains at large and the motive unknown).

Here's the live stream of Kristin in the KATV newsroom. (http://cfc.katv.com/external.cfm?p=chooseyournews&h=2000&menu=news)If not quite addictive, it's oddly compelling.

[NonPersa]

i know this only got bumped because of spam, but i happen to really like Choose Your News. And it has gotten great viewer response. People seem to like it.

[Paper Trail]

Arkansas TV reporter defends "Choose Your News" segment

By David Kinkade (http://www.thearkansasproject.com/post-debate-now-what-will-we-write-about/)

The debate that transfixed a state for weeks on end culminated tonight as Arkansas News Bureau columnist John Brummett and KATV “Choose Your News” girl reporter Kristin Fisher hashed out their disagreements over the role of new media in news-gathering and reporting.

It was mostly a friendly and constructive exchange between the two debaters, with Brummett striking a more conciliatory and generous tone than he had in his earlier columns deriding new media practitioners (like this one).

But he stuck to his guns on several points, including his claim that Fisher’s “Choose Your News” bit is a “fleeting pointless gimmick,” and, as he says, “gimmicks never work” in the long run. This is disheartening news to me, as this blog, and pretty much my entire life up to this point, has been little more than an ongoing series of gimmicks.

Fisher made a spirited defense of the new media ways—these young kids with their tweets and streaming web video and all that—and she’s made some headway on that, as Brummett was much less dismissive of these tools than he’s been in his earlier writings (like this one). And she emphasized that the “Choose Your News” experiment was one worth pursuing, to see where it leads in terms of audience engagement and media transparency.

So who wins? Well, both of them, it seems. Fisher’s “Choose Your News” segment has seen an explosion of attention and interest (more than 10,000 votes on one recent evening), and KATV news director Randy Dixon said it’s making money for the station. (He declined to say how much.)

Meanwhile, Brummett confessed that he liked being the subject of buzz in the Arkansas blogosphere: “I’m young again; I’m relevant,” he said, and admitted that the debate’s made him more aware of the threats to the news industry. “Its good to stay mildly in touch with what’s going on,” he cracked. “That’ll help you in the news business.”

[Roy Hobbs]

All Eyes on KATV's Fisher (http://www.broadcastingcable.com/blog/60000406/post/1360036936.html)
KATV has a history of innovative/weird sweeps stunts, including the "e-partment" experiment that saw a reporter holed up in an apartment for a month, with no access to the world other than the Web.


Yeah that reporter ended up going nowhere, give or take 58 markets.
http://gothamist.com/attachments/jen/2008_02_intkp.jpg